วันจันทร์ที่ 26 สิงหาคม พ.ศ. 2556

Land in Thailand: Acquisition of Land by Alien

According to Section 86 of the Land
Code, an alien may acquire land in Thailand only by virtue of the provision of
a treaty providing him with the right to own immovable property. Obtaining such
acquisition is subject to the provision of the Land Code and the Ministerial
Regulations issued under the Code, and the permission must be obtained from the
Ministry of Interior. Before the termination of the treaty which was made on
February 27th, 1970, there were 16 countries bided to the treaty ; USA,
England, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, France, India,
Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Burma, Portuguese, and Pakistan. Since then,
Thailand has no longer made any treaty with any country to allow an alien to
acquire land in Thailand by virtue of a treaty.

However, the Land Code has been amended with Section 96 bis providing that
since January 19th, 2002, an alien who invested not less than forty million
baht and maintain the investment not less than five years is allowed to
purchase land in Thailand for residential purpose and the land to be purchased
shall be not more than one rai in area. Moreover an alien shall comply with other
rules and regulations stipulated by Thai laws.

Besides the aforementioned method, an alien may acquire land by inheritance as
statutory heir, in this instance, the land devolved when combined with the land
already acquired shall not exceed that specified by law, for examples, land for
residential purpose not exceeding 1 rai per household, land for commercial
purpose not exceeding 1 rai, land for industrial purpose not exceeding 10 rais,
and land for agricultural purpose not exceeding 10 rai per household.

An alien whose spouse is a Thai national either legitimate or illegitimate,
that Thai national can purchase land but the alien spouse of that Thai national
must give a joint written confirmation that the money which that Thai national
will expend on purchasing the land is wholly the separate property or personal
effects of that Thai national and not the Sin Somros or jointly acquired property.